The invention relates to a device for spreading whole tobacco leaves on a table by smoothing out and stretching the two halves of the leaf in a direction away from its mid rib.
Such a device is for instance known from the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 4,005,719, according to which a brush is positioned above the proper spread-table and is arranged to be lowered towards and raised from the table. When the brush is in its raised position a tobacco leaf is manually fed laterally across the table until the foremost lateral edge of the leaf has passed the brush which is then lowered towards the table and smoothes the leaf transversely by its continued advance movement. The use of said prior device provides for achieving an excellent spreading of moistened tobacco leaves, but only a minimal stretching is obtained. The apparatus further requires considerable manual work and involves a certain risk of tearing the mesophyll, in particular if the leaf has beforehand been slightly damaged by holes or scratches.